RIM snaffles up social gaming outfit Scoreloop

BlackBerry maker RIM has acquired a company best known for making software development kits for the Android and iOS platforms.

German company Scoreloop provides SDKs which simplify the addition of social elements of mobile games allowing users to interact with each other and counts Geared, Doodle Train and Squibble amongst those iOS/Android titles which use its coding tools.

This will be seen as just another move away from its business roots for the Canadian company which recently made its first foray into the tablet market with the altogether underwhelming BlackBerry Playbook.

It's not clear whether Scoreloop will continue to support Android, which the Playbook uses under emulation, or if they'll branch out into RIM's own QNX operating system. We have an inkling that work on the iOS side of the business might dwindle rather rapidly.

Tellingly, Scoreloop trumpeted the acquisition by pasting the announcement inside a picture of a PlayBook tablet.

In it, the company's CEO Marc Gumpinger says, "Over the past few months we've become intimately acquainted with the RIM team and their strategy for the BlackBerry platform. We've seen first had their excitement and ambition to build the best platform for mobile games. So we've joined forces to help make this a reality.

"As part of RIM, well be in the unique position to integrate deeply into BlackBerry platforms to take mobile gaming to the next level together. We'll continue our cross platform approach, but you'll see that our BlackBerry solution will be unparalleled. We can't wait to share what comes next."